Sunday, May 28, 2017

The Ascension

Back where I grew up, the Ascension is still celebrated on its proper day (this past Thursday). So, there, one is still greeted in the morning by the
local news’ announcement that in the entire city what is called “alternate side
of the street parking” is suspended because of the holy day. It’s even better in
Germany, for example, where Ascension is still a legal holiday and where even
the Stock Market is closed in observance of the Ascension. Back when I was a
kid, of course, what we especially liked about the Ascension was that we got
off from school. And certainly some of us here are also old enough to remember
the wonderful old custom of ceremonially extinguishing the Easter Candle – the
symbol of the Risen Christ’s presence among us – after the reading of today’s
Gospel. Even more dramatically, in certain places, either the candle itself or
a statue of the Risen Christ would be hoisted up to the church’s ceiling, to be
replaced by a shower of roses as a sign of Christ’s parting promise to give the
Holy Spirit to the Church. The point of such rituals, of course, was not to
highlight Christ’s absence, but rather the new way he is now present to us. As
the Church prays in the Preface of today’s Mass: he ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we,
his members might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has
gone before.

Historically speaking, the Ascension commemorates the end of the Risen
Lord’s series of periodic appearances to his disciples in the weeks after his
resurrection. The Risen Jesus no longer walked earth the way he did before he
died and rose, but he did, as Luke says in today’s 1st reading,
appear a number of times to his disciples during that post-Easter period of 40
days [Acts 1:1-11], speaking about the kingdom of God.

So, now, if Jesus doesn’t walk the earth as he did before, where exactly
is he? Theologically speaking, the Ascension celebrates what we profess every
Sunday in the Creed, that he is seated at
the right had of the Father, where, as the letter to the Hebrews assures us
he lives forever to intercede for us [Hebrews 7:25; cf.
Romans 8:34].

On the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, pilgrims can see a footprint-like
depression in a rock (photo), which purports to be the spot from which Jesus ascended
into heaven. The footprint and the idea that he pushed off with such force
that he left a footprint in the rock may be a bit fanciful, but it does make
the important point that it is Jesus’ real human body (and thus the real human
nature that we share with him) that is now with God. So the Church prays today in
the Eucharistic Prayer, he placed at the
right hand of your glory our weak human nature, which he had united to himself.
As Pope Francis has recently reminded us: Even
though the Lord may now appear more distant, the horizons of hope expand all
the more. In Christ, who brings our human nature to heaven, every man and woman
can now freely “enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and
living way he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh”[Hebrews10:19-20].

So the Ascension anticipates what the resurrection has made it possible
for us all to hope for. Meanwhile - in this interval between Ascension and the
end, a time full of problems and challenges of every sort, of crises and
conflicts in the world and even in the Church, not to mention all our own
personal problems and worries, in this interval between Ascension and the end –
we too may be tempted to doubt, just like the apostles in the Gospel. Yet, although
he is absent in one way, he has nonetheless promised to remain present: behold, I am with you always, until the end
of the age[Matthew 28:20]. Hence his
instruction to his disciples to wait for
the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father.

This Jesus, who lived and died and now lives again forever with his
Father, far from being absent, is actually still very much present among us by
the power of his promised gift of the Holy Spirit, who is always at work in the
Church, through which we remain connected with him, so that, through us, he can
continue his work of transforming our world. Again, as Pope Francis, has
expressed it:

Those who, in faith, entrust themselves to the guidance of
the Holy Spirit come to realize how God is present and at work in every moment
of our lives and history, patiently bringing to pass a history of salvation. [Papal Message for the
51st Annual World Communications Day]

Homily for the Ascension of the Lord, Immaculate Conception Church, Knoxville, TN, May 28, 2017.

About Me

Rev. Ronald Franco, CSP, is a member of the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle (The Paulist Fathers) and Vice-Postulator for the Canonization Cause of Paulist Founder, Isaac Hecker. He is Pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, Knoxville, TN,